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New Phishing E-mail Warns of IRS Penalty

Electronic mails posing as messages from Internal Revenue Service caution recipients that they've been penalized for exceeding the scheduled time-period towards filing their returns; however, they may follow a given web-link and request to get an exemption. Hoax-slayer published this dated February 8, 2012.

Using one catchy header: "A monetary penalty notification," the IRS-spoofed fake e-mail states that the agency wishes to notify the recipient that he must pay a fine on account of non-submission of his tax return before January 31, 2012. It (the message) then requests for the recipient's attention to IRS [Section 6038(b) (1)], which apparently issues a $10,000 worth monetary penalty for all [Forms 5471], which are dispatched following the last date scheduled for submitting taxpayers' IT alternatively, don't contain the accurate information specified within [Section 6038(a)]. However, businesses, which can convince that their non-submission by the specified deadline was because of acceptable reasons, will be exempted from the penalty. Therefore, the user requires visiting the IRS website and knowing the details, the e-mail concludes.

Meanwhile, the e-mail isn't surely from the tax-agency, IRS while the late-submission penalty too doesn't exist as it so attempts at duping users that they may proceed to click the mentioned web-link. However, the web-link only leads onto a fake site that mimics the original IRS site.

This fake site solicits detailed financial as well as other personal information from the user in the pretense of allowing him to convince his case as exceptional as also thus get an exemption. But once entered, the detailed information goes straight to the scammers enabling them to commit ID-theft followed with financial fraud.

Security specialists observe that being the beginning of another year i.e. 2012, taxpayers have embarked on filing their pending returns, while spammers are exploiting the situation enormously. Indeed, researchers have detected many spam mails over the last few days. One of them, in February 2012, posing as an IRS communication and stating the agency's inability to process the e-mail recipient's tax-return, can be seen circulating online. Reportedly according to this e-mail, the user must provide certain personal information that's indicated within a given attachment.